Doctored video of Amit Shah speech | Delhi, Assam, Maharashtra police file cases

Delhi, Assam, Maharashtra police file cases over doctored video of Amit Shah's speech; Congress leaders embroiled.

The police in Delhi, Assam, and Maharashtra filed three separate cases and arrested at least one person - a Congress functionary from Assam - in connection with a doctored video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s April 23 speech in Telangana regarding reservation.

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, and four other Congress office-bearers in the State too found themselves embroiled in the controversy on Monday, as the Delhi Police issued notice to them under Section 91 (summons to produce documents) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). 

A government source told The Hindu that the notice to to appear before the Delhi Police on Wednesday has been sent to Mr. Reddy as he is the president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) and not because he is the Chief Minister of the State.

“The video that looks prima facie ‘altered’ was posted by on X [formerly Twitter] by Telangana Congress. Being the State president of the party, Mr. Reddy has to explain the origin of the video,” the source said, adding that if Mr. Reddy does not appear on the scheduled date, another notice will be sent. The video was fact-checked by a Telugu user on X the same day, and that user will be asked to join the probe to trace the video, the source further said. 

The doctored video was posted on X by the Telangana Congress on April 27 and the post was not available on April 29.

While in the doctored video, Mr. Shah is heard saying that the BJP intends to eradicate reservations for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), in the original video he says the party intends to remove the 4% reservation for Muslims in Telangana. 

“When the BJP will form the government, it will end the unconstitutional reservation for Muslims in Telangana. This is the right of ST/SCs and OBCs and they will get their rights,” says Mr. Shah in the original video. The video is part of an election speech Mr. Shah delivered at Chevella in Telangana.